Provision and production reform of urban fire services : privatization, cooperation and costs

With the objective of expanding fire protection services to cover sparsely populated areas, an important reform has been implemented in the region of Galicia (Spain) over the two last decades, involving cooperation at county level and provincial level for service provision, and privatization of the service production. This article analyses that reform, and empirically studies whether privatization and cooperation have had any significant effect on costs incurred by the government for fire service provision. Our results suggest that cooperation is an efficient tool for expanding the service. However, we do not find a significant relationship between privatization and costs.